cybersecurity

My experience with it wasn't quite the same, but was similar. When I was looking at it, it was very much in that category of cert that was mostly about memorizing the study guides/books, and less about building/proving a skillset (which, as mentioned, is hardly uncommon with IT certs unfortunately).

Where it did have some "value" was that it was a well-known cert that was very useful for "proving" that your org was in compliance. A badge you could hang to auditors and costumers/clients that said you knew your stuff. Again, hardly uncommon with IT certs. :\

I don't think it's completely worthless. Depending on where you're at in your career, it can be a useful experience. But it should, I think, be treated like a (relatively) beginner-tier cert. Something you might consider at an early point in your journey, but not one I'd necessarily build your resume around. I also think that it's value may depend a lot on exactly what your role in an organization looks like. CEH for an entry-level pen tester or incident handler? Yeah, maybe. For something like an IAM developer or a privacy analyst... eh, less so.